


that's christmas to me.

by leothequeenn



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: :), AU where they didn't die, Christmastime, M/M, and ethan really loves sparkly ornaments, and luke just fuckin LOVES christmas
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-20
Updated: 2015-12-20
Packaged: 2018-05-07 23:00:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,692
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5473697
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leothequeenn/pseuds/leothequeenn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Luke’s pesky alarm is ringing at seven o’clock in the morning, and honestly, it’s a bit of a mood killer for the sleeping in, but surprisingly, Ethan is okay with waking up this early</p>
            </blockquote>





	that's christmas to me.

**Author's Note:**

> it's five days til Christmas!! :) so I wrote a Christmas fic for lukethan. Because, yeah.

Luke loves Christmas. He loves the winter season, the hot chocolate and the snow and basically anything about the winter time, especially the cold. Ethan personally freezes to death out in the cold, and hates the way the snow makes his cheeks extra red around the taller blond, but he likes the hot cocoa that Silena makes and the cuddles Luke gives him. He likes Christmas. It’s the perfect balance between the crisp autumn and the shitty snowstorms they get in January. But Luke loves it and Ethan never really understood it, since he never seems like the type to love giving gifts and wrapping them and decorating trees.

But there they are, buying a six-foot evergreen tree and decorations that Luke lets him pick out while he goes and picks out some tinsel and lights. Or, while Luke silently pleads to go get some. Ethan nods and lets him go off in the back of Lowes, to go pick out the lights for the tree itself and _maybe for inside, around the house_ , and the black-haired boy just sucks on his peppermint flavored candy cane, looking at the ornaments they had. There are plenty of sparkling, glittery ones that Ethan could get, could want and he almost grabs for a box of silver moons before he stops himself.

Would Luke really like the moons? He’s never had Christmas with his boyfriend before. Well, he’s never really lived with his boyfriend either, but he moved in a few months back and he figures there’s always a first time for everything.

He grabs the sparkly moon ornaments and tosses them into the green cart. He also grabs some sparkly reindeer and some glittery candy canes and tosses them in too. There’s even a cute penguin one and Ethan can’t resist, and so he puts that one in the cart too. He knows there’s some ornaments that Luke and Ethan both have over the years, and so he tries not to get too many.

Although, that’s hard whenever there’s a cute Snoopy ornament that he tosses in the cart with no shame, because so what if he likes the Peanuts? Luke would have to deal. He keeps browsing, seeing a cute tree skirt, one that’s red and has a white fluffy trim and has Merry Christmas stitched in. Ethan puts it in the cart, too.

Along with the Empire State Building ornament he finds. No shame.

Luke comes back to see the cart filled with ornaments, the tree skirt, the actual tree, and some boxes of candy canes in different flavors, hot chocolate mixes and a few Christmas decorations, along with two Santa hats -- and a very guilty looking Ethan. Luke arches an eyebrow at the hats, and Ethan just sheepishly says, “...Silena wanted me to get the hats.”

“You like Christmas, don’t lie.”

“Never said I didn’t.” Ethan says and Luke puts the silver tinsel and white and red lights for the tree into the cart. “I just… Wouldn’t want to do all the adult things that come along with Christmas.”

“Like what?” Luke asks and Ethan just shrugs, because he definitely didn’t expect Luke to actually question him, and they walk along silently, Luke pushing the cart and Ethan walking to the left of him, hand tucked in the crevice of Luke’s forearm and upper arm. “Empire State Building--?”

“Shut up.”

 

* * *

 

Luke makes sure to make the place as romantic as he could. There’s a fire going, he’s got candles lit and the whole house smells like vanilla and peppermint and Ethan doesn’t really know how he gets this spirited this fast.

Of course, it’s December fifteenth, and so it’s snowing like crazy and Ethan is tucked away in the comforter from their bed on the couch, where he normally is during the winter time. Luke grins and comes over to him and gives him a kiss before saying, “You know, this tree and these lights and these ornaments aren’t gonna hang up themselves,” and Ethan wants to resist the urge to roll his eyes, but sadly, that doesn’t work.

Ethan can feel himself starting to grin at how sarcastic he is, as he says, “but of course they can, if they get a little help from you.”

Luke imitates Ethan’s actions with a grin and a roll of his eyes, and asks, “okay, how many people does it take to put up a tree and lights?”

Ethan scowls, “one?”

And this time, Luke’s grin grows. “Nope, two. Come on,” and he pulls Ethan from his warm sanctuary and the smaller boy rolls his eyes as Luke dramatically turns the heat up a bit. “There, do you want me to turn on some music, too?”

After a moment, Ethan’s arms cross over his chest and grins, and Luke knows he’s forgiven. “Sure,” the black-haired boy says and reaches over to Luke’s work table and grabs scissors. He cuts the tree’s box open as Luke wakes his computer up and clicks on the Spotify shortcut. After a minute, the whole house was filled with soft Christmas melodies and Ethan almost wanted to swoon at the selection. “Of course you have a Christmas playlist.”

“Guilty. Can we put the tree up now?” Luke asks and how could Ethan say no to him? They start by figuring out the pieces (after the smaller boy threw them on the ground) and Ethan makes sure that they’re in the right order and that the base is balanced.

“Can’t have a lopsided tree.” Ethan mumbles under his breath and he could see Luke give him a smile out of the corner of his eye. After they set the tree up and make sure it isn’t lopsided, Ethan starts to fan out the branches and only needs Luke’s help whenever he needs to fan out the tippy-top. Luke says something about it, but Ethan’s too embarrassed to care and Luke begins to open the box he had gotten from the storage closet, and he figures it’s ornaments and he sits on the bed and watches him pull out boxes and bags of ornaments, some are generic colored balls but some are special to both of them. It shocks Ethan to know that Luke put both of their special ornaments together in one box, and it made him feel a bit bubbly to know that. Ethan gives a quick smile as Luke starts to work on the lights instead, opening them up.

“Guess we should use the lights first,” he grins and Ethan laughs, nods, and helps him unravel the lights and helps him string it up onto the tree, which they have placed in the corner of the room by the television. As they work, Ethan swears he can hear Luke humming along to _Hark! The Herald Angels Sing_ and Ethan wants to laugh because it’s from the Peanuts movie but he doesn’t say anything as he continues to work.

Once they finish, Luke takes it as an opportunity to turn the lights on and the tree shines a bright white and red. Just like a candy cane. Ethan grins at Luke and says, “it’s a good thing we bought candy cane ornaments.”

 

* * *

 

Ethan comes inside from being outside too long (literally, why did he have to work and actually leave the warm apartment?) and makes it up to Luke’s -- _their_ \-- floor and unlocks the door, stepping in and seeing Christmas lights up around the windows and the door, and even on the stair case. “You bought a lot of lights, didn’t you?” He asks but no one answers, and Ethan sighs, setting his stuff down and toeing off his shoes. He hangs his fluffy coat up on the coat rack by the door and goes to the kitchen, deciding to make himself a glass of hot cocoa, because it’s too cold but it’s the twenty-second and so he has work off until the day after Christmas and so he doesn’t have to go out again. Luke’s presents are down in his car, ready to be wrapped so he guesses he has to go back outside but he doesn’t want to think about that and so whenever the milk is heated up in the mug and the mix is stirred, he almost forces himself to down it.

He walks upstairs, opening the door to their bedroom to get dressed into something more comfortable, whenever he sees Luke, sleeping with the covers tucked up around him. Ethan doesn’t know if he’s sleeping on his back or on his stomach, but he figures he’ll wake him up after he gets into some sweatpants. He disappears into the closet to get changed, and gets into some black sweatpants and a cute Christmas-y sweater, one with a reindeer on it, and he walks back out and turns the light off and suddenly the bed looks so inviting. Ethan downs the rest of the hot cocoa he made, no matter how scalding he made it, and closes the curtains and slips in beside Luke. The blond cracks an eye open and looks at him and Ethan realizes he smells like peppermint and Christmas but that doesn’t matter because Luke pulls him closer and it doesn’t take long for Ethan to fall asleep after a long and cold day.

 

* * *

 

“Silena invited us to a Christmas party,” Luke says as he makes some Christmas breakfast thing that Ethan didn’t know anything about. Something with peppermint spice or something. Ethan just sits with his knees tucked up and stares at the Christmas tree he set up with the blond. The lights on it are already plugged in and the tinsel is sparkling and Ethan just huffs. “And I said yes,”

Ethan huffs again and hears as Luke is flipping something, maybe a pancake and this isn’t right, normally Ethan’s the one cooking and giving food to a sleepy Luke who had stayed up past midnight. Not the other way around. Sure, he had fallen asleep whenever he was snuggled up next to Luke, but he had woken up and stayed up until midnight. Ethan isn’t happy at the moment, and hearing he had to go to a party, Silena’s party, nonetheless, isn’t the best thing to be hearing. Especially whenever Luke _said yes_.

“That’s fine,” Ethan lies through his teeth and keeps his freezing hands on his tea. Suddenly, he stands and heads over to the kitchen and glances at Luke. “Let me cook, okay?”

“Nah,” Luke grins and the smaller boy rolls his eyes. “Plus, you have no idea what I’m making.”

“Let me guess: peppermint pancakes?”

“You cheater.”

“I know the sound of flipping pancakes, and I definitely know the smell of peppermint since you got that body wash or something. So what time’s the party?” Ethan asks and sits down on the counter, ignoring the look that he gets from Luke (that he gets either because of sitting on the counter or because he actually said he uses girly body wash around the holidays). “Because if it lasts until like, eleven or something, then I’m not staying the entire time.”

“I figured as much, you’re not necessarily a ball of sunshine at parties.” Luke tilts his head and Ethan focuses on his scar instead of his eyes. He is right, however, on both parts. “And it’s like, eight to ten or something.”

“Fun.” Ethan spits out and Luke just laughs, continuing to cook.

 

* * *

 

As soon as Ethan arrives with Luke at eight o’clock sharp with presents in his arms, he wants to go home. He loves Silena, don’t get him wrong, but sometimes she goes overboard with things.

Like her house. Is literally. Covered in lights.

Ethan wonders how she put them up by herself but as soon as she opens the door with a white smile and red lips (and her husband behind her) it all makes sense. She had help. She had Beckendorf, of course, how could he forget? Ethan had known that.

Luke grins and Ethan finds himself just naturally smiling too, since that is what Silena’s good at. Her house is even more decorated than the outside, and the whole house smells like gingerbread and peppermint and somewhat how Luke smelled last night. There are people around, people who Ethan likes and people who don’t like Ethan and he is sure of. He isn’t the best at people skills, honestly, he’d rather be back inside their apartment with Luke and the fire blazing, but. Some things you can’t have just yet. He’ll be back in their apartment with Luke soon. “Silena,” Ethan says, but she stops him and points to the middle of him and Luke.

“You gotta,” Beckendorf snickers, and Silena grins, and Ethan doesn’t even want to look up because he _knows_ what it is, he _knows_ Silena and knows that she would put that  _there_ and that doesn’t stop Luke from snickering and pulling him into a kiss. “Oh, Silena, don’t take a picture. Oh God.”

 

* * *

 

It’s dark, it’s quiet and it’s cold until Ethan is awakened by a strange tug on his hand that was obviously pulled on by someone who has bigger hands -- he can feel the warmth coming from their hand, their body as they continue to pull. As they continue to say things like, “Eth, wake up,” and “it’s time!” As they continue to be a jackass and wake him up.

He could tell now that it was Luke calling him, that’s his voice telling him to get up and pulling on his hand. Ethan glances at the clock, noticing it’s only been a few hours since he fell asleep. Wasn’t the point of sleeping at Luke’s place to sleep? That’s what Ethan wants, not whatever this is, not whatever Luke is going to do. However, Ethan sits up with a tired look on his face to maybe let the blond know that he isn’t down for this, whatever it is, but Luke just grins and points to the calendar. Maybe he’s a bit too excited, maybe he’s sleep deprived, but either way Ethan glares at him.

“I can’t read that.”

“Don’t you know what day it is? Or what day it’s going to be?” the blond says all too seriously, and Ethan has to stand up and squint at the calendar before noticing that today -- _yesterday_ \-- was December twenty-fourth. Luke is excited about it turning to the twenty-fifth.

“You’re a weirdo,” Ethan says dismissively, and goes to sit down but that doesn’t stop Luke from wrapping him up in his arms and giving him kisses until it’s close to the next morning. Ethan feels bad and gives him a kiss as the clock turns midnight.

 

* * *

 

Luke’s pesky alarm is ringing at seven o’clock in the morning, and honestly, it’s a bit of a mood killer for the sleeping in, but surprisingly, Ethan is okay with waking up this early. He had wrapped Luke’s presents whenever he was out, and had managed to wrap them perfectly.

The black haired boy sits up and looks over at his sleepy boyfriend, who happens to have his eyes open, and he says, “it’s time to open up presents.” He earns a smile from Luke, who then sits up and kisses Ethan until they’re giggling and kissing like they were last night. Ethan is still in his reindeer jumper and sweatpants, but Luke sleeps shirtless and so he goes in the closet while Ethan heads downstairs and sees little cute presents under the tree, and he patiently waits on the couch, no hot chocolate, for Luke.

And as soon as he’s downstairs, they move to sit by the tree and Luke finally hands him a present and says, “merry Christmas, Eth,” and Ethan giggles and opens the present (a book on psychology -- one of his favorite subjects) and gives him a kiss as the cycle continues, handing each other presents.

Halfway through, Luke gets up and makes them some hot chocolate with marshmallows, but soon they’re cuddling under a blanket and opening more presents and that’s Christmas to Ethan, that’s what Christmas should be and he’s glad he’s spending it with Luke.

And, it’s a good Christmas.

**Author's Note:**

> Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, my fellow Lukethan lovers. And anyone else reading this, too. :) x


End file.
